The Gippy Pages

WordPress TextMate Bundle

Updated: December 6, 2009

The WordPress TextMate Bundle is, well, a TextMate bundle built with the sole purpose of reducing the amount of times we have to dig around the WordPress core to look up the little things that we work with every day.

The plugin features auto-completion of WordPress functions, snippets for common sections of code, and templates for WordPress components. We even snuck in function completion for Carrington template framework functions. We’re always making improvements as we find more that we want covered by the plugin (like WordPress MU support, coming soon).

Features

• Auto-completion of WordPress functions with parameter hinting.
• Parameter hinting for common functions like [get_]bloginfo() and query vars.
• Snippets of common page and plugin parts like widget blogs, admin menus, and loops.
• Templates for some WordPress components like plugins and page templates.
• Carrington Blog function completion support
• Fully tab stopped parameter entries in function templates
• Function definition tool-tips
• Goto function command to jump to file and line number where a function is defined
• Validation of your Plugin’s README.txt file against the WordPress online validator

Function Completion

Please note that this has changed from control-option-escape to control-shift-escape due to a Snow Leopard incompatibility issue. I have no idea what the issue is. Basically Snow Leopard stopped taking input for control-option-escape so I had to change it.

General function completion can be invoked with a slight modification of the regular PHP function completion. We chose to use control-shift-escape as its easy to remember next to the regular PHP command (option-escape). The completed function will include parameter hits for the function as best as my simple grep of the core will allow. I’m still trying to build a better way of grabbing comprehensive function definitions.

It does leave just a little bit to be desired. It doesn’t distinguish between classes, functions and methods, and though it does filter out “magic” & private methods (those prefixed with an underscore), it does index all function declarations it finds. And I believe that there’s a stray JavaScript function or two in there.

“Common” function prefixes are duplicated in to their own commands. They all pull from the same function definition list, but offer a limited scope search. These limited scopes are available for:

• get_⇥, ie: get_permalink, get_post_meta
• is_⇥, ie: is_home, is_search
• the_⇥, ie: the_post, the_title
• wp_⇥, ie: wp_cache_add, wp_themes_dir
• esc_⇥, ie: esc_attr_e
  

Functions that have many options or required a bit of special attention have been expanded in to their own completions:

• bloginfo⇥ and get_bloginfo⇥ for bloginfo vars
• wp_list_pages⇥ for listing pages and providing a standard starting point
• get_posts⇥
• wp_query⇥

Each of these is invoked with a tab trigger, for example: wp_⇥

We can’t (yet) look at the current project to pull in any custom defined functions (ie: in plugins and theme function files), but we’re working on that possibility.

Function Definitions

Partial function definitions can be brought up by selecting or setting the carat inside the function that needs to be defined and then using Command-Shift-H to bring up the tool tip.

The second line of the tool-tip lists the file and line number where the function is defined to make looking up the details of the function more convenient.

Goto Function

When pointed to an install of the current version of WordPress the bundle can jump to the definition of a function so that the function can be inspected.

Please note that this has changed from Command-Shift-G to Command-Shift-Option-H as to not conflict with the built in TextMate search modifier for “Find Previous” keyboard command.

Simply place the carat in a function name, or highlight the function, and press Command-Shift-Option-H. If needed (and it will be the first time you run the command) you’ll be directed to enter the full path to your WordPress (or WordPress MU) install in the Preferences (Command-Option-,) before the function completion can work properly.

Template Snippets

The bundle includes snippets for some common operations we encounter during WordPress development. These include:

• plugin_head⇥ – Insert plugin header
• adminmenu⇥ and adminsubmenu⇥ – Add admin menu/submenu
• widget⇥ – Add widget and widget control for WordPress 2.8+
• widget-old⇥ – Add widget and widget control for versions older than WordPress 2.8
• nwpq⇥ New WP_Query
• theme_head⇥ – Theme head
• comment⇥ – Comment template
• commentform⇥ – Comment form template
• post⇥ – Post template
• sidebar⇥ – Sidebar template

Actions & Filters

We’ve also included a complete list of built in WordPress Actions & Filters so that using add_action⇥ or add_filter⇥ brings up a pre-compiled list of available actions and filters.

Enqueuing

By typing enqueue⇥ you’ll be presented with a list of options for enqueuing scripts and styles. All the standard script options are included when using the straight enqueue option, or a parameter hinted function template can be inserted for enqueuing custom scripts.

User Roles

Who can ever remember all the user role levels? Now you don’t have to. With user_can⇥ you’ll be presented with all the available user role levels to choose from.

Common Variables

Included are functions for quickly accessing common object members for post objects, query objects and the database object. The currently available completions are:

• qv⇥ for query vars
• pv⇥ for post vars
• wpdb⇥ for wbdb vars and methods
• wp_query⇥ for wp_query vars and methods

README.txt Validation

README.txt validation just got a little bit easier. The bundle includes functionality to validate your README.txt file without leaving TextMate. Once validated the README.txt can be modified in the validation window and resubmitted if necessary.

And more…

There’s even more included that’s not yet mentioned here. Just browse through the bundle menu to see everything that’s available and play around with some of the function completions to see the multiple-levels of assistance that it provides.

Version Compatability

The bundle will be kept up to date with WordPress’ latest release. There will be no conscious effort made to retain backwards compatibility.

Download

• GetBundles (preferred method): The bundle is accessible in a couple of ways. If you use GetBundles you already have access to it. Look for the WordPress bundle authored by Gipetto and install it. GetBundles also keeps the TextMate support libraries up to date so this is the preferred option. Not using GetBundles? Alex Payne includes GetBundles in a good writeup that includes a few other must have items for TextMate.

If you don’t use GetBundles then skip on over to the Project page over at GitHub. There you’ll have a couple of options:

• Git: If you’re familiar with Git then grab the Public Clone url and pull the plugin down to your ~/Library/Application Support/TextMate/Bundles directory (its OK to create this structure if it doesn’t exist). Reload your bundles or restart TextMate to load the bundle.
• Direct download: If you don’t do Git then click on the download link and pull down your preferred compressed format. Decompress it to ~/Library/Application Support/TextMate/Bundles (its OK to create this structure if it doesn’t already exist). Reload your bundles or restart TextMate to load the bundle.

Bugs/Suggestions

If you find a bug, would like to see a feature implemented, or would like to contribute a feature to the project please use the Issue Tracker over at our GitHub project page. We’re not opposed to anything, though you may have to put up with our ideals in how we like to implement things

Update History

About the closest I’ll get to an official changelog on this is the GitHub commit log: View Commit History.

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